The Faithfulness of God
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Who, of their own accord, can stand before a holy and righteous God justified? Who, by their own effort, can be pronounced sinless, forgiven? Who, in their own righteousness, will spend eternity in the presence of the Almighty God and inherit a kingdom that is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away? Who is deserving, by their own merit, to dwell in the house of God forever?
Paul begins his masterful work of Romans considering, to some extent, that very notion. The answer, although it may not shock any of us here this morning, is of eternal consequence. The answer requires a response from each and every one of us.
Who, of their own accord, by their own effort, in their own righteousness, by their own merit; deserves God’s forgiveness, earns His favor, and lays hold of His promised blessing of eternal life?
Absolutely no one!
Paul begins his letter with an indictment of the Roman world. Notice with me what Paul writes in
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
And while if the letter ceased its expose on the condition of mankind before a holy and righteous God at the conclusion of , the Jews would have something to boast about. However, Paul continues in , to indict even God’s chosen people of sin and rebellion against Him.
Notice what Paul states in .
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
I want you to continue to notice how Paul focuses the microscope directly onto the Jews in , in a rather severe chastisement of the consequence of their failure to remain faithful and obedient to God’s covenant with them. Indeed, they too are guilty!
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
And, so as to leave no doubt in mind, to leave no question looming in the minds of his audience and anyone who would read this letter thereafter, Paul makes his point clear. Notice what He states in .
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Who, brethren? No one! Not you. Not I. No matter how hard we try, how much good we do, how much we sacrifice. No one, of their own accord, by their own merit or goodness can be saved. We are all in danger of God’s righteous judgment and wrath.
As the Hebrew writer says in .
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And if that was the finality of Paul’s message, if that were the ultimately end of the story, if we were doomed to an eternal prison in Hell constructed by our own selfish deeds and sins; I would tremble in waiting. Wouldn’t you?
However, Paul’s masterful work takes a sharp contrast in tone. The dark images of despair, of wrath, of sin and deserved punishment fade at the brilliance of God’s faithfulness to His promise.
Notice our text under consideration this morning of .
Thus,
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
From this passage we learn of...
God’s Faithfulness to His Promise.
To make a clear point, let’s highlight the history of Israel while assuming you can fill in some of the finer points.
As we know, in God made a covenant with Abraham, to secure a lineage by which He would bless all nations of people. And following the Biblical narrative, through Abraham’s lineage of Isaac and Jacob, the nation of Israel was established.
However, Israel rebelled against God and His Law. Thus, they were carried away into captivity—both to Assyria and to Babylon respectively.
Yet, their punishment was not without warning, nor was it unwarrantede. Through the Prophets, God warned of His impending wrath if they did not repent. The prophet Jeremiah stands as a fitting example of God’s continued message to Israel. Notice what God said to the nation of Israel in .
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
“ ‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on the bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’
“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
Yet, they persisted in their sins and idolatry; and were destroyed. Yet, a remnant would ultimately returned as further prophesied by Ezekiel in .
Yet, they persisted in their sins and idolatry.
“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries,
“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”
Yet, they persisted in their sins and idolatry.
Of course, this was warranted. Israel had rejected their God and turned to idols.
At this point in the history of Israel, several things are clear to the Biblical audience. Israel had failed. They rebelled against God. They earned their just due punishment of captivity. However, God could not give up on them. His promise to bless the nations of the world is through them.
Therefore, God would not allow them to languish in captivity and slavery. He would allow a remnant to return as prophesied in and fulfilled during the time of Ezra. He would remain faithful to His covenant.
However, this covenant must be fulfilled apart from the Law. As Paul states in .
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Therefore, God must establish His righteousness and faithfulness to His promise apart from the Law. Thus, he states in .
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
How, then, does both a sinful humanity find redemption and justification in the sight of God; as well as God reveal His righteousness and faithfulness to His promise apart from the Law?
According to our passage, it is through...
2. Christ’s Redemptive Work on the Cross.
Notice how Paul continues in .
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
The key here to understanding Christ’s redemptive work is found in the term translated propitiation. This term denotes an appeasement of God’s wrath. You see, brethren, someone must bear the punishment of sin. Someone had to endure God’s wrath. His just nature demands it.
Therein lies the beauty of Christ’s sacrifice, of his agonizing and torturous death, of His shed blood. His death appeased God’s wrath. states.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Yet, Christ’s redemptive work on the cross was two-fold. Indeed, it was to be the propitiation of our sins, it was to appease God’s wrath, to satiate His just nature.
But it was also to bring us justification in the sight of a holy and righteous God. Paul finalizes our passage in .
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
That is the brevity of God’s love for us. He paid the price for our sins, in order to appease His own wrath, and to redeem a sinful humanity who could not stand in His presence justified of their own accord, by their own effort, in their own righteousness, or by their own merit.
CONCLUSION:
How do you respond this morning to such a powerful and compelling display of love and sacrifice on your behalf, a debt you could never pay, the wrath and punishment that you could never endure?
I hope it is not as you have responded in the past by sitting idly by while the invitation song is sung, telling yourself all the romanticized lies you can muster. Do you have more time? Will God be patient forever?
Paul tells us exactly how to respond in our passage this morning. He says in verse 22. It is through faith in Christ.
However, understand that faith, as we have noted in , is always characterized by obedience. Thus, a proper response to such a tremendous gift is not good intentions, but faithful obedience.
Will you come this morning in obedience to the Gospel? Confessing Christ as the Son of God (). Repenting, turning from your sins and being baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins () Ultimately, walking in newness of life, being faithful until death (; )
Don’t
If you need to respond, don’t delay. Come now while we stand and sing!